And with the rise of ISIS and a growing Cold War between Russia and the US, the future of our Earth feels increasingly uncertain.

Here's everything you need to know about the peril predictor...

What is the Doomsday Clock?

Devised in 1947 by respected journal The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the symbolic clock face signifies the likelihood of global annihilation.

The closer the time to midnight, the closer the world is considered to be to catastrophe.

Scientists set the time at 23.57 in 2015, where it has remained since.

It has not been so close to midnight since the worsening of the Cold War under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

Factors that will be taken into account when setting the "time" this year will be: "A rise in strident nationalism worldwide, President Donald Trump’s comments on nuclear arms and climate issues, a darkening global security landscape, and a growing disregard for scientific expertise."

What is the closest to midnight the Doomsday Clock has reached?

The clock ticked over to two minutes before midnight in 1953, when the Soviet Union and USA tested new hydrogen bombs within a few months of each other.

It is likely to have ticked even closer during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

The stand-off over Russian nukes on Cuba was resolved months before the annual January announcement of the Doomsday Clock time.

Who are The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists?

The body is a journal of experts in weapons of mass destruction and climate change.

Published since 1945, it releases a new issue every two months and presents its Doomsday Clock findings yearly on January 26.

Among its founding members was Robert Oppenheimer, the American scientist considered the father of the atomic bomb.

Why has the clock changed this year?

According to the scientists being the calculation, the alarming change came because of humanity's failure to deal with the twin threats of climate change and nuclear weapons.

And, according to Lawrence Krauss and David Titley, the leaders of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, that danger has been amplified by Donald Trump's promises "to impeded progress on both of these fronts".

"Never before has the Bulletin decided to advance the clock largely because of the statements of a single person," the two scientists said.

"But when that person is the new president of the United States, his words matter."